1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle that includes a vehicle drive motor that drives the vehicle and an air-conditioner drive motor that drives an air-conditioner compressor.
2. Description of Related Art
There is proposed a drive device for an electric vehicle in which a vehicle drive motor that rotationally drives drive wheels of the vehicle and an air-conditioner drive motor that rotationally drives an air-conditioner compressor are coupled to each other via a planetary gear mechanism so that the rotational force of the air-conditioner drive motor is also transferred to the vehicle drive motor to assist drive of the vehicle. Such an electric vehicle drive system is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-178403 (JP-2010-178403-A), for example.
The electric vehicle drive system allows the rotational force of the air-conditioner drive motor not only to be utilized to rotationally drive the air-conditioner compressor, but also to be transferred to the vehicle drive motor via the planetary gear mechanism to assist the vehicle drive motor. This reduces the number of motors from three to two, and reduces the size of the vehicle drive motor to suppress an increase in weight of the vehicle.